The favorable opinion polls, the encouraging reports from the provinces,
the heavy turnout−all signs pointed to an election victory for Brian
Mulroney. Thus the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party was not
especially surprised when, at 7:37 p.m., an announcer for the Canadian
Broadcasting Corp. crisply declared that Mulroney would be the
country's next Prime Minister. But within 15 minutes, Mulroney and many
of his 25 million fellow Canadians began to realize that something
extraordinary was happening. By night's end the...